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Let me say unabashingly, I was really a big fan of Elizabeth Taylor, who died last week at 79. She was the epitome of a real movie star. In fact, she could just be the last great movie star from the Hollywood tradition of grandeur. Many of her movies I have watched time and time again. You can’t really understand 20th century Texas without seeing her portrayal in “Giant.” And no pity pat rolls for this lady. Her acting in Tennessee Williams’ “Suddenly Last Summer,” and “Edward Albee’s “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolf” showed how versatile her talent, and how varied her speeds of hysterical emotion could be. She well deserved her three Academy Awards.
I met Elizabeth Taylor once. I really did. I was working one summer during my laws school year as an athletic director of a teenage camp up in the Adirondack Mountains, some three hours north of New York City. Ms. Taylor’s then husband, was the great British actor Richard Burton, and I really wanted to see his performance on Broadway of Shakespeare’s “Hamlet.” So I drove down from Schroon Lake one afternoon, bought a “cheap seat” ticket outside the theater, and relished in Burton’s stunning performance.
When the play was over, I hung around outside the theater to take in the ambiance, the lights, the sounds and the smells of Broadway. Twenty minutes went by, and then right by me on the street came a white, stretch limousine. The door opened and out stepped Elizabeth Taylor. I was blocking the path to the stage door, so she looked at me and smiled with those violet eyes. . Just then, the stage door opened and out comes Richard Burton. He’s waving at her, she’s waving at him and I’m standing right in the middle. So I step aside as they embraced, both she and Burton throw a smile towards me, then they were off in the limousine. So what do you think? I was there right between the two of them. Wouldn’t you agree that I actually “met” Elizabeth Taylor? I sure thought so. Yep, it was me and the two movie stars. You will never get me to say otherwise.
